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January 28, 2010

Finally, Bangladeshi bloggers have grasped the power of blogs on the internet and are truly exercising their freedom of expression to make changes in their lives and society…writes Saad Hammadi

Jyoti was pleased by the news of the successful
separation of Bangladeshi conjoined twins, Trishna and Krishna at
Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital and so, she posted her pleasure on
the Unheard Voice blog.

‘I wake up every morning with TV
news, and it’s rare that I hear the word “Bangladesh” uttered,’ she
mentioned in her post. That she is not in the country is apparent from
her post.

j@shadakalo is witty when it comes to making sarcasm
about some of the inconvenient news or state of affairs. The
pseudonymous blogger’s latest post, ‘Momma’s boy’ at E-Bangladesh blog
mocks the presidential pardon awarded to Awami League presidium member
Sajeda Chowdhury’s son, while he was absconding.

The shutdown
of the Tibet exhibition at the Drik Gallery in November last year, drew
in massive criticism on the blogs of E-Bangladesh, ShahidulNews, Shada
Kalo blog, Unheard Voices blog, Docstrangelove and many more.

While
these are merely three anecdotes of how blogs have transformed into a
mouthpiece for every global citizen, they are evolving everyday and
growing from strength to strength.

In the late 1990s when
internet users started to increase in Bangladesh, the craze among the
teen revolved around the internet relay chat (IRC). The communication
soon picked up in the threads of online forums and discussion groups.

In
2003, there were only a handful of bloggers in the country. But today,
the spread of bloggers is almost incalculable. They are celebrating
their freedom of speech and expression to the full and using the power
of words, visuals, voice and videos, they are drawing global attention
on issues that would otherwise have gone largely unnoticed.

These
are the new generation of pressure groups for the state and other
stakeholders. They are succeeding in doing what even the mainstream
media sometimes falls short of.

Take for instance the tenure
of the military backed interim government when the print and electronic
media were under close supervision of the state agencies. Restrictions
were imposed on news items and critical statements about the government.

This
is when the bloggers proved the power of citizenry journalism. Facts,
news, opinions and criticism that could not have been reported on the
mainstream media stormed in on blogs.

The release of jailed
cartoonist Arifur Rahman in 2007 also partially owes to the pressure
exerted by the bloggers. Nowadays, blogs are a medium for raising
support for orphaned children and fatally ill people, demanding trial of
war criminals, protesting hazardous ship breaking and the Tipaimukh dam
project, among other issues.

Over the years, blogs have
shifted to newer dimensions such as community blogs like
‘somewhereinblog’ and ‘narijibon’ as well as Diaspora blogs like
E-Bangladesh and Unheard Voice.

Today, there is a cross
section of bloggers, starting from the leader of the Communist Party of
Bangladesh, to the son of current prime minister, leading economist,
eminent journalists, non-resident Bangladeshis to many other
individuals.

‘All in all, we can say that the blog communities
are host to many of the nation’s opinion makers,’ says Arild
Klokkerhaug, head of opportunities at Somewherein.

Arild’s
Somewhereinblog is the first Bangla community blog in the country that
popularised blogging immensely since the end of 2005 and currently hosts
over 37,000 blogs with around 10,000 visitors everyday.

The power of blogs

When
the landslide in 2007 killed hundreds in Chittagong, Arild initiated a
campaign mobilising the bloggers’ community to help the situation. They
went to Chittagong, updated the latest situation on blogs, raised funds
for victims and protested against hill-cutting.

His effort was
endorsed by many other bloggers like Trivuz, who pointed out how, by
compromising a cigarette, a cup of tea or coffee, or a phone
conversation each day, for three months, one could accumulate the amount
required to save a mudslide victim.

‘This is the potential
power of our blogging community, and this is a cause to unite for! Come
on bloggers, let us unite for a campaign and participate with coverage
and help,’ posted Arild in his blog in June 2007.

‘The power
of blogging is that it harnesses the strength of the Internet and it can
reach people across the world instantaneously,’ said Rezwanul Islam,
who is often referred to as the dean of Bangladeshi bloggers.

With
the mainstream media largely being owned or influenced by corporate
companies or political parties, blogging offers an alternative platform
where free thought is expected and encouraged, believes Dr Shahidul
Alam, an internationally renowned photographer, journalist and blogger.

‘The
interactive possibilities of blog also allow greater ownership of the
reader and a multiplicity of voices that conventional media cannot
offer. Depending upon the level of moderation or the public perception
of the blog, it can accommodate far more diverse points of view than
what the conventional media with its more straight-laced editorial
limitations tends to offer.’

Some of the bloggers have gone on
to perform extensive and investigative journalism. While Munshiyana, a
Somewherein blogger posts an extensive piece on the history of tensions
revolving around the Chittagong Hill Tracts upon completing 12 years of
signing the CHT peace accord, Rezwan points out how bloggers have
earlier exposed irregularities on micro-credit operations and similar
stories.

The world knew about what goes on inside a Quomi
Mahila Madrassah when a female Madrassah student wrote about it herself.
(http: //www.somewhereinblog.net/ blog/kajori/28873366).

‘A
journalist from the mainstream media cannot provide these perspectives
because the girl probably would have never given an interview to a
journalist on such a sensitive issue. But writing anonymously gave her
the power to tell the truth,’ said Rezwan.

‘Bangladesh is a
country which is marginalised in the world media, and it is the work of
Bangladeshi bloggers both within and outside the country which can
re-represent the country,’ believes Juditha Ohlmacher, an assistant
professor of media studies and journalism at the University of Liberal
Arts Bangladesh.

The western media has more often been
inclined to portraying the negative stereotypes of the country. However,
says Rezwan, ‘they fail to see the miracle that with a high population
density, these people are resilient to the wrath of nature and are
fighting back.’ The images of Bangladesh on flickr.com, captured by the
amateur photographers can stun anyone and change those impressions they
have perceived from the global mainstream media.

‘It is
important for the students to embrace new media as a method of
communication, especially to reach outside the country,’ said Juditha,
who makes sure her students have a blog for themselves.

According
to Arild, blogging ‘is an incredible engaging platform for
storytelling’ and thus he believed marketing firms are likely to have a
stronger advantage using the new media. All marketing requires is
creating a buzz and thus, encouraging bloggers to share their stories,
completes the job well.

‘Whether it is a mobile operator
having stories to share about a mobile lifestyle, a tea brand sharing
stories about the lifecycle of its product and a car dealer wanting to
highlight the comfort or power of his brand, it is about creating
participation,’ said Arild.

Inspiring tales

Many
bloggers have transformed into writers within the span of the last four
years, especially after the advent of Bangla blogs like
somewhereinblog.net, sachalayatan.com, amarblog.com, prothom-aloblog.com
and techtunes.com.bd.

Many first-timers have converted to
regular writing while amateur writers have sharpened their skills really
well, writes Farid, a somewherein blogger.

Thus, the number of books written by bloggers has been on the rise over the years.

At
the Ekushey Book Fair, the bloggers have drawn a readership for their
works, involving poems, stories, novels and much more. In 2008, there
were some seven or eight books written by bloggers. Following the
enthusiasm, last year, at least 47 books were written by bloggers
targeting the 2009 Ekushey Book Fair in February.

While
somewhereinblog published its third collection titled ‘Opor Bastob-3’
with selected stories from its bloggers, there were also political
novels, poems, research, short stories and other collections published
by different publications.

With search engines like Google
enlisting blog posts, if you are writing on a burning issue like
Tipaimukh, you can have your 15 minutes of fame in no time, believes
Rezwan.

Across the globe, there are many critical and
dissident bloggers who argue on diverse issues revolving international
relations, politics and governance. Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez shot to
fame after the president of the United States, Barack Obama responded to
her questions about the relationship between Cuba and US in November
last year.

‘But it is not just about fame or publicity,’ said
Rezwan. In the political culture currently prevalent in Bangladesh,
where the parties do not have a system to value individual opinions,
where a party follower cannot put forward an opinion to the leaders,
‘the blog is a useful platform to strengthen democracy, because here,
people can lay out their opinions and there is a scope for a discussion
in the comments section, so that the issue can be carried on further.’

Musings

What
makes blogs different from the conventional media is the diversity of
the issues discussed. Blogs have the capacity to make every blogger a
diarist and a journalist at the same time. Thus, many bloggers prefer to
write about acquaintances and experiences in the first person form as
well as various issues that interest them the most.

Whether it
is Rezwan’s last days in Berlin where he talks about driving for 14
hours from Berlin to Paris (1100km) and crossing four countries in a
day, Alam’s encounter with the police during the Tibet exhibition or
Sajeeb Wazed, the son of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina writing about the
developments of his mother’s trial during the interim government’s
tenure in 2008, every post has an interest group.

‘Blogging
offers the spontaneity and intimacy of a diary, and at the same time,
has the enormous reach of the Internet,’ said Alam. From a literary
perspective, it creates a platform where serious issues can be dealt
with, in collaboration with an international audience but in a manner
that does not have the weighty feel of scholarly tomes, or the
machinegun approach of the live media.

‘Of course flippant and
irrelevant blogs do exist,’ he said, ‘but since a blog is only as
valuable as the minds it is able to gather, there is a natural filtering
effect that separates a good blog from a bad one.’

Thus, one
of the most interesting factors about blogging is the divulgence of
musings and personal experiences. Celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan,
Shobhaa De or former Vice President of USA Al Gore enjoy global
readership for their personal experiences.

In case you are
wondering who will find interest in your personal posts, as long as you
are able to write them in an interesting manner, you may draw the
attention of your friends, colleagues, family, relatives and many
passionate bloggers who may willingly follow your blog.